Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Petty Special Off-Balance For ESPN

Expectations were high for the Richard Petty one hour special on Tuesday from the good folks at NASCAR Now. This TV series on ESPN2 had earlier presented a very warm and personal special from DEI on the anniversary of Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s passing. This show would be much different.Back then, Nicole Manske was the single host and she showed her skills in conversation and interviewing with a wide variety of personalities. This time, Shannon Spake was going to be on-site at the Petty Museum in Randleman, NC. It houses a wonderful collection of trophies, cars and memorabilia. At the opening of the show, it was made clear that no ESPN personality was on-hand at the new Petty shop in Mooresville, NC. The focus of this show was going to be fifty years of history.Surprisingly, it was Nicole Manske appearing on-camera at the beginning of the show. After a brief introduction, she introduced Spake who was in the interview location. The interaction between the two was awkward and it was clear from the start that Spake was uncomfortable in this role. As Manske would introduce Spake and her new set of guests, Spake in return would then re-introduce them again every single time as if she could not hear the "toss." Nervous and tentative, Spake would then ask basically the same question over-and-over again with a different subject. It was tough to watch.Fans tuning-in were looking for a walk down memory lane and what they got instead was a lot of sitting. A whole lot of sitting. The problem was this was not the ESPN studio, it was the Petty museum and NASCAR Now was avoiding the very reason they were on-site. They were surrounded by fifty years of racing history and never even gave the TV viewers a tour. What a shame.Manske is a TV pro and she zoomed through the news stories of the day, allowing David Newton to pay-off the Truex team penalties and offering a video denial by Max Siegel that DEI is for sale. During the show, Tim Brewer and DJ Copp combined for a fun look at the pit stops of old and that is exactly what the show needed a lot more of...a lot. Spake talked with Dale Inman, Kyle Petty and the King. Her questions were basic and often seemed uninformed. ESPN2 played back video features that had been used before and one voiced by Allen Bestwick for this program. Unfortunately, neither Spake or Manske got up and walked. Petty is incredibly proud of the cars, trophies and memorabilia in the museum. He never got a chance to show it. How incredibly strange that the program revolved around folding chairs and two reporters in the same building at different locations. If Manske and Spake had gotten-up, they would have experienced the Petty museum just like the NASCAR fans in these pictures. They might have actually had a good time. Not a lot more can be said about this show except that it missed the mark. NASCAR Now has been an outstanding studio program this season and Manske's programs on-location from Daytona and DEI worked well. Unfortunately, this special show just did not click. Back to Bristol and the studio on Wednesday for Manske and company.

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38 comments:

red
said...

my initial comments are on the original post so this comes after several hours of pondering. i have figured out why i was so very disappointed in this show. given how much footage of the king is out there, how many of his competitors are still alive, how exciting that museum has been reputed to be, i thought we'd see a tight production, filled with memories and great film. add in the presence of the king himself and it's a sure hit.

unfortunately, none of that happened. it was a ramblin' mess that just seemed to wander about in circles -- but not in a good way. no energy, no laughs (except when inman said petty was lazy! you didn't need to be able to see behind those big old shades to see the momentary flash of irritation in petty's eyes at that comment!) instead of showing that fun piece on dj copp trying to use the tools of petty's time -- and it was funny, make no mistake! -- i would have enjoyed more with petty himself.

which is my next frustration. there sat the king and dale inman, nascar legends both and i truly felt bad for them as they tried manfully to handle the questions shannon spake tossed their way. she had THE perfect interviews sitting right there, waiting to talk and have a great time and her weak skills made the whole segment just drag. and i still can't understand why we needed two hosts at opposite ends of the same location?

espn generally puts together some fairly slick packages and it is SO frustrating that this was not one of those. they can't go back and try it again and i doubt any other nascar partner will try. so sad. such a great and historic story, waiting to be told, and it was so badly mishandled.

That's a shame, glad I didn't see it. Sounds like the Producer really dropped the ball on this. Sirius did a show from there and it was great, of course the hosts have been involved in NASCAR for a long time.

i'm not sure what's happening here: i watched the show and i wrote my impressions as i watched as did other folks. did you guys miss that? no one said the dj copp piece wasn't excellent. what i thought was that it was misplaced, that it didn't belong on a show that was advertised as being a tribute to the king's 50 years of racing.

i have little problem with manske or spake. i have little problem with foks sitting down during interviews. but i did have a problem with that show. i'm not going to re-list all my concerns as i have already posted my impressions. i will say, however, that i think spake was not strong in her role as interviewer, that manske was not sharp in her role as co-host, second host, left side of the studio host -- whatever her role was supposed to be. the non-definition of her role was an immediate point of comment.

for me, it isn't about the personalities of the women involved. the entire broadcast was disappointing and frustrating. i made time to watch the show b/c of my respect for richard petty and my love of the sport. i had hoped for some great interviews and would have really enjoyed a video tour of that museum.

some have taken to questioning jd's "ax to grind" but i ask that you read comments from others as well. jd: could you please consider moving that NN column back up in the line so that the comments the folks wrote at the time can be read?

and anon at 1:20: i found your comment about "T&A" to be completely offensive and rude.

You are both welcome to return and re-post without the offensive comments to Ms. Manske and myself.

I left ESPN in 1989 with a nice party and no hard feelings. Since Feb of 2007 we have seen a total change in the network's NASCAR coverage that has been tremendously positive. One bad show is not going to spoil the season.

Whenever we post on female announcers, we always get some men who need to make sexist comments, its just the way of the Internet. Sorry if someone was offended before the comment was removed.

For veiwers that want the King to take off his glasses: IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. And I don't have a problem with that. That is his style and has been since the early 70's. If you want to see them off, go in the pit and see him on top of the truck; they are off then. As far as the show: Yes. Disjointed to say the least. If veiwers don' want "t & a", then at least the camera crew could follow the Petty's (Richard and Kyle) around and have them stop at certain locales and talk about what particular trophy, picture, cars, etc. strike their fancy.It must be an ESPN thing, what with the two separate locations in the same building. Perhaps Nicole and Spake can't stand each other.The interview with Kyle was mainly about his tenure in the booth, not about his Dad's 50 year history, which was a shame as I know personally he has some great stories to tell along the way.But in the end, folks, isn't it great that the mainstream media hasn't forgotten about The King, or his legacy? Alot of people (including modern day drivers,and this is a fact, don't even know who he is), so it's nice to see "someone other than Earnhardt" on T.VGod Bless the boys from Randleman.

I feel the same way. Do not wish to carry over my short comment from other post. Many others have stated how I feel about the show better than I can and I agree. What a letdown. I really expected more. Will move on from here. One bad show, but it was an important one, that we can not go back and do over. NN still alot better than last season.

It was embarrassing in its ignorance of the sport and Petty.With all of the knowlegable and camera saavy race hitorians out there - many of whom lived thru the heyday of Petty- this show selects two female hosts who, btween them, probably cannot cite a significant fact about the King.Smacks of ESPN sexism

JD, when you posted that Shannon Spake was going to be the lead on this show, I thought, “Oh, dear”. Unfortunately, I was correct.

When ESPN started the NASCAR contract, they made some questionable hiring decisions on their NASCAR staff. With Nichole and Shannon, they hired two cute females who had been on TV shows that had something to do with NASCAR. Nichole took this job and ran with it. She did her homework and is a total turn-a-round from her SPEED days. Shannon, on the other hand, has not made any progress. Having her do the interview with Richard Petty was an embarrassing mistake.

JD-I did not see the show but it sounds like they should have had Ryan McGee talk with The King.If anyone knows The King and all of the history of his racing it would be Ryan. I am sure it would have been fun too.

I also watched the Petty interview on ESPN2, last night and was very disappointed. They could have had the inerview with out showing either Richard or Kyle all the time and showed a little bit of the Museum. THis would have enticed peope to visit. I was there years ago and would have like to see what the new museum was like. Richard or Kyle could have also talk about the different cars, as they answered the questions, rather than just a 'sit and tell' interview.

Well it wasn't the best show. It felt like I was at a funeral and you should sit down, shut up, and show respect for the departed. (maybe not that bad but close)It did seem somber though. Not much excitement to be celebrating 50 years. Brad would have been a kid in a candy store there. I think he would have asked questions I could relate to, and had fun. That is my #1 problem with ESPN. I'm human, I make mistakes, ESPN and the announcers are no different. I haven't enjoyed my profession for years, so I tune to NASCAR for knowledge, fun and racin. ESPN most days is just dull, and this celebration was DULL. I'm sure Shannon is trying, but pairing her with Nicole just didn't work. And for the only funny part of the show, Nicole said about 6 minutes in "...it was some 50 years ago this week that a young man named Richard Petty first climbed behind the reel of a wace car"... I'm not being hateful by bringing that up, it's just funny in all of the seriousness (if that's a word) of ESPN. I'm not a Ryan Burr fan but he would have been the better choice for the "news" correspondent.It appeared like there may have been a terrible time delay between Nicole and Shannon.

Nicole M. was on SportsCenter last night interviewing Roy Williams from some out-of-the-way hamlet - Chapel Hill, NC - 80 to 90 miles from Level Cross. It was not clear to me when the interview was done, but I would have to think this week.

This morning The King was on CNBC live from NYC talking with Darren Revel about NASCAR and the economy and his deal with Boston Ventures.

I don't get to watch much racin' TV, but caught the first half of this...mess. Wow, was it bad. I kept checking to see if this was actually ESPN or my local podunk TV station. Hate to be critical of ANY racing coverage, but c'mon.... for a national sports production, this was just bad in every way.

Id love to see some comparisons between the ESPN Petty debacle and the Trackside version. Im certain with the backgrounds that the Trackside boys bring to the table the show will bring some more things that fans want to hear from the King